The
Waterford Raceway’s 2019 season kicked off as usual with a
non-points “warm-up” day, moved this year from January to the
beginning of February as the club wanted to support their East
Cork friends at the Watergrasshill Sprint. In the days after
Watergrasshill the weather turned nasty over much of Ireland and
Waterford’s opener came close to being postponed, but in the end
a bright sunny morning greeted us, with the snow capped Comeragh
mountains providing a fine backdrop to the first day’s racing of
the year. Conditions perhaps weren’t as fine on the many
and various routes that racers take to the Pike, and that
contributed to a much smaller than normal turnout of 30 cars,
with 36 drivers signed on. There were enough new cars and
drivers sprinkled through the entry though to provide plenty of
interest in the day, sponsored by Kieran Sandford Motors of
Dungarvan.

Racing
started with the ROOKIES,
in which a 7 car field included three newcomers. Out of these,
Liam Óg Power, who had one outing in a borrowed car last year,
was immediately on the pace with his nicely turned out Micra,
while Aoife Healy performed well in the refreshed family Micra
and Darrell Deane built on the experience of his first outing at
Watergrasshill. Martin Power took the honour of the year’s first
race win, holding off Conor Fitz and Liam Kiersey in a close
finish. Second time out Conor Fitz took a clear win with Abby
Hewitt heading the rest home. Unfortunately the final had to be
stopped a lap early when Abby got tagged by a car she was
lapping and had a heavy shunt into the infield tyre wall. Conor
Fitz was again leading from Liam Kiersey, Martin Power and Abby,
with Liam Power, Aoife Healy and Darrell Deane completing the
order. Conor Fitz took his first overall win (of many?) with
Liam Kiersey and Martin Power taking the other trophies.

With
the Modified Junior class having been dropped after last year’s
small turnouts (a shame after the great racing they’d provided
in previous seasons), the
JUNIOR PRODUCTIONS
become the headline Junior class for this year. Another seven
car grid included last year’s Champion Aidan Heney, with a big
handicap to make up on the rest of the field. Rosegreen regular
Lisa Nelson made a rare Pike appearance and led most of the
first heat before Aidan came flying through to take the win. In
the second race another driver more often seen at Rosegreen,
Cian Clancy, pulled out too big a lead for Aidan to catch him.
The final proved much closer but after Darragh Healy led for
much of the way, Cian Clancy again held off Aidan, with the
other leading contenders being Tadgh Foley, Darragh Healy and
Ross Ryan, graduating from the Rookies. Another boy moving up a
class was Ryan Hickey, while Lisa Nelson dropped to the back
after a spin. Cian Clancy took the overall trophy from Aidan
Heney and Tadgh Foley.

The
best racing of the day undoubtedly came from
CLASS 1 with a very
fast and evenly matched field of six Micras and one Starlet,
promising a shake-up in the class this year with the previously
all-conquering Michael Baldwin now having his eye on Class 3. In
the first heat all the Micras got involved in a spectacular
scrap in which Jack Hickey, starting his first senior season,
just got the better of Davy Banville, Arek Konieczy, Shane
Hickey, Ronan Foley and Pat Nolan. However, they were all racing
for second as they couldn’t quite catch the much improved
Starlet of Ronan Coughlan. The Starlet was handicapped into the
middle of the pack next time out, when Shane Hickey just beat
Davy Banville, although the battle was split up when a slight
contact saw Jack Hickey spinning across the bows of Arek
Konieczy, putting Arek out when his bonnet flipped up. Pat Nolan
headed the final away but his new Micra didn’t quite have the
speed to stay there and the Wexford man got swallowed up before
the battle ended in yet another triumph for the Hickey family,
Jack heading Shane across the line with Davy Banville, Arek and
Ronan Coughlan right in the thick of the battle. After their
1-2-3 at Watergrasshill, this week the Hickeys took the top two
trophies with Jack first and Shane second, while Davy Banville
claimed third.

CLASS
1B
and the STOCKS raced
together, with every driver in the field new to their class.
Luke O’Donovan moved up from Juniors and headed the 1Bs in the
first two heats, then taking a close second to Ava Moloney, a
former front runner in the Juniors at Rosegreen, in the last
race. Luke was the overall winner from Ava and first time racer
Conor Harty, while Joe Fitz was out of luck due to many problems
with the Micra he shared with Abby Hewitt. Evin Harding has
moved from the Juniors to the Stocks this year with an
ex-Premier Rod Almera. Unfortunately he was alone in the class
but showed a good turn of speed as he caught and passed all the
Micras in the second and third races.

With
CLASS 2 and
4 running together, Peadar Wall was in good form as he
dominated Class 4 despite a spin in the second race. Runner up
in the class was newcomer Peter Deady, sharing Paul Fitzgerald’s
Class 3 Starlet. Class 2 also featured a couple of shared cars
and Pat Ryan’s Micra held the advantage, chased all day by
Michael Coughlan in the Class 1 Starlet.

The
final group should have combined
CLASSES 3, 5 and
6 but unfortunately Donal Linehan’s Honda-powered 206, the
only Class 6 entry, had problems in practice. Padraig Smiddy’s
Toyota-powered Micra was alone in Class 5, but featured in some
close battles with his cousin Jason Ryan’s rapid 1300 Micra,
running in Class 3. Also running a Class 2 car in Class 3 was
Michael Baldwin, trying his dad’s Micra before his own car is
ready, and he won the second race. Overall, Jason was the winner
from Michael with Katie Egan third overall in her Starlet and
Paul Fitzgerald dropping out before the final race.

The
day ended with a six-car
HELPERS’ RACE, won by Ger Clancy in Peadar Wall’s 206,
chased home by Ben Hickey in Jack’s Micra with the Class 1B cars
of Jamie Condon (in Aidan Heney’s car) and Stephen Healy next
up. Completing the field were Alan Ryan in Jason and Pat’s Micra
and Kim Cashman, having her first ever race in Shane Hickey’s
Micra.

The
rain that threatened later in the day held off and there was an
early finish to round off a good preview to the season proper at
the Pike, which starts in three weeks on 24 February.

On a
personal note, thanks to everyone at the Pike who helped out
after we managed to struggle as far as the track with a
non-functioning alternator in our Mercedes.